The Procession of the Holy Burial starts on Good Friday at 21:00 with all the Stations of the Cross, as well as the procession Cathedral’s statue of Christ rising from the sacred tomb, accompanied by members of the Nazarene, Penitents and Mary Magdalene brotherhoods.
The possible explanation of this fact can be found in the will issued on the 28th January 1550 by the Canon of the Diocese of Tortosa, Jaume Forcadell, born in Ulldecona, in the presence of the notary Joan Puigvert. In his will, among other aspects, the Canon stipulated that “for the work and glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Mother, worshipped by all Christendom and in atonement for my sins and the health of my soul and of all our deceased, I want and demand that a general procession be held every year on Good Friday at the hour of prayer, which shall start at the Diocese of Tortosa...".
To ensure that this procession had the desired continuity, he bequeathed to his colleagues at the Tortosa Diocese Chapter a pension, annuities and the amounts required from his estate to cover the costs involved in organizing the public event. Therefore, we can see that in the mid-16th Century, a canon from the diocese of Tortosa, stipulated in his will that a procession should be held every Good Friday, organized by the canons of the diocese, starting at the Cathedral. As such, it may be considered that the modern-day procession is the heir of the one that Canon Jaume Forcadell established in 1550. However, the will itself tells us that some type of procession was already held on Good Friday, organized by Jerònima-Tomasa Riquer, the wife of Lluís Oliver de Boteller, Viscount of Castellbò. The possible (and relative) continuity between the procession founded by Canon Forcadell and the modern Good Friday procession is reinforced by two coincidental and significant facts: the starting point is the Cathedral and, until 2005, the organizing body was the diocese Chapter, just as the Canon had stipulated in his will.
Since 2006, the procession is the responsibility of the Association of Confraternities, under the chairmanship of Josep Borrell.
Vicent Josep Ruiz Prades
Director of the Municipal Tourism Office
